CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Serena Williams Reveals Her Very Pregnant Body In Vanity Fair Cover

Whoa! Serena Williams reveals her very pregnant body on the cover of Vanity Fair in a stunning nude portrait taken by the celebrity photographer Annie Liebowitz. The 35-year-old discusses her pregnancy and her future important life events (birth of the child in September and upcoming nuptials) as well as her intention to return to competitive tennis in 2018!

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Neil de Grasse Tyson Explains What Happens After You Die

For today's Godless Wednesday, physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson explains what he believe happens when humans die. (Hint: it has nothing to do with heaven or hell.)

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: FFRF Full Page NYT Ad On First Amendment

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has a full page ad in tomorrow's New York Times (in honor of Bill of Rights day) with the provocative(?) headline "Don't Let The Religious Right Trump The First Amendment" with a picture of Indiana Governor (and Vice-President Elect) Mike Pence and a portrait of Founding Father (former President) James Madison. The advertisement also includes the statement "The framers of our secular constitution knew the only wall we need is between church and state." MadProfessah is a proud member of FFRF so I am happy to publicize this effort of promoting "free-thinking."

hat/tip to Friendly Atheist

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Lydia Polgreen, New Openly Lesbian Editor-in-Chief of Huffington Post

It's not every week our Celebrity Friday subject can be an out lesbian of color. However, that is the case this week since The Huffington Post has named an open lesbian of color to be their new Editor-in-Chief! Lydia Polgreen, 41, the editorial dirctor of NYT Global at the New York Times is replacing former editor-in-chief (and founder) Arianna Huffington as the head of one of the most significant digital publications in the world.

This is how the Huffington Post reported the news of Polgreen's appointment:

In an interview, Polgreen said it was difficult leaving the Times, where she spent nearly 15 years, but that the role at HuffPost was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
“I feel like we’re living in a moment right now where media has to fundamentally rethink its position vis-a-vis power,” she said. “I think that the election of Donald Trump and the basic difficulty that the media had in anticipating it tells us something really profound about the echo chamber in which we live, the ways in which journalism has failed to reach beyond its own inner limits.”
Polgreen described HuffPost as a “truly great global, progressive news platform,” though not in a purely political sense. She said the site has the “potential and the possibility of really meeting this populist moment that we’re living in and meeting people where they actually are.”
“The DNA of The Huffington Post is fundamentally progressive, but I think that has a really capacious meaning and comes to include so many of the things that motivated not just the people who were rah rah Bernie or who voted for Hillary Clinton, but also many, many people in the United States who voted for Trump, who have fundamental concerns about the way the country is moving and the future,” she said.
Originally launched in 2005 as a progressive alternative to the Drudge Report, HuffPost has grown into a Pulitzer Prize-winning news and opinion site boasting 17 international editions, including its most recent launch in South Africa.
Polgreen has extensive international experience, including serving as the Times’ West Africa bureau chief, South Asia bureau chief and Johannesburg bureau chief, where she covered major events such as the death of Nelson Mandela. She has also served as deputy international editor and helped oversee the launch of The New York Times en Español. In April, Polgreen became editorial director for NYT Global, part of a $50 million investment to grow the paper’s reach into multiple international markets.

Hat/tip G-Listed

The Expanse First FOUR Episodes Available Free At SyFy.Com!

I am crazy busy this week with grades being submitted and a quick trip to the East Coast but I must pause for a minute to let you know that The Expanse, the SyFy television show adapted from my favorite space opera series written by James S.A. Corey premiered on Monday and Tuesday. But there's even better news! The first FOUR episodes (of the 10-episode first season based on the events in the first book Leviathan Wakes) are available for free at SyFy.com! Go watch them and let me know what you think via Twitter @maprofessah.

Serena Williams Named Sports Illustrated 2015 Sportsperson of the Year!

Wow! Serena Williams continues to make history. For having a 53-3 season and coming within two match wins of the calendar grand slam, the 34-year-old has become Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year, the first woman to be honored (by herself) in more than 30 years.

SATURDAY POLITICS: President Obama Is OUT Magazine's "Ally of the Year"

These are some awesome pictures that President Obama took as part of an interview he did with Out magazine when he was named their Ally of the Year in the current issue where the Out 100 is also revealed.

#MUSTREAD: Vox Report On Mass Incarceration In USA

Over at Vox today there is a must-read feature analyzing the United States public policy of mass incarceration, despite drops in crime rates. The feature puts the issue in perspective by using 28 charts to illustrate the devastating human toll of the  relentless increase in the prison-industrial complex in America.

America is number one — in incarceration. Over the past several decades, the country has built the largest prison population in the entire world, with the second-highest prison population per capita behind the tiny African country of Seychelles. But how did it get this way? Although it may be easy to blame one specific event, the US's path to incarceration was decades in the making — involving politicians as varied as Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.

Go read it yourself, right now!

CELEBRITY FRIDAY (BONUS): Is Rachel Dolezal Black Simply Because She Says She Is?

Social and popular media have been going buck wild about the story of Rachel Dolezal, the  apparently white woman who has been posing publicly as a Black woman for at least the last 10 years.

NPR's Code Switch blog has a useful roundup of online coverage:

In a bizarre turn of events, a prominent civil rights leader and Africana studies professor in Spokane, Wash., has been accused of pretending to be black for personal gain. 

Rachel Dolezal, 37, heads up the local chapter of the NAACP in Spokane and has apparently identified as black for several years. Dolezal's story came to light after she was accused of falsifying reports of multiple hate crimes. Local reporters contacted her parents, who made a startling claim backed up by a birth certificate and old pictures. They say their daughter's heritage is Swedish, German, Czech and a little bit Native American. But definitely not black. 

Predictably, this story has blown up all over the Internet as people try to make sense of it all: Why did she do it? Didn't anyone suspect? What's up with that hair?

As many experts have pointed out, people have been "passing" as a different race for hundreds of years. It's just that almost always this has meant that it was people who would generally be characterized as "Black" (or African-American) passing as something else, usually a racial identity which is less marginalized. What makes the Dolezal situation so unusual is that it is an example of someone voluntarily adopting a subaltern identity, presumably to garner some kind of advantage that they otherwise wouldn't have had access to if they maintained their original identity.

Some people are trying to compare the Dolezal story to the Caitlin Jenner story but that is clearly just stupid.

Dolezal engaged in such actions in order to be perceived as black, in a racialized American environment where that matters. Trans people transition in order to be the gender we feel inside and, while there may come a time when posers will appropriate trendy trans culture for profit, right now, there's no advantage to transitioning when you're not trans.

In some sense this Dolezal situation shows that there has been progress of race relations in America where it is possible for some people to actually believe that their social circumstances would improve if they were perceived as Black or African-American.

Hat/tip to Wonder Man

WATCH: San Bernardino Cops Caught On Video Brutalizing Suspect

Hat/tip to The Daily Beast

SyFy Announces Key Cast Members For "The Expanse" TV Series

You may remember that my favorite science fiction series ("The Expanse") is being adapted into a television series to air on SyFy in 2015. Season 1 of the show will be based on Book 1 of the series, titled Leviathan Wakes. The show appears to be coming together, because casting news has been coming out for months. The Expanse takes place roughly 200 years in the future and the first book is based around the adventures of the crew of The Rocinante (James Holden, Alex Kamal, Naomi Nagata and Amos) as they travel around the solar system, especially Mars, The Moon, Earth and various habitats in the Asteroid Belt. Two pivotal characters are Detective Miller, a detective whose investigation into the disappearance of the daughter of the head of a huge corporation catalyzes the plot, and Chrisjen Avasarala, an apparently minor official in the administrative body that serves as the world government of Earth who wields incredible amounts of power and is probably my overall favorite character in the series so far.

Here is what we know so far about the cast:

Holden: Steven StraitMiller: Thomas JaneAmos: Wes ChathamAlex: Cas AnvarNaomi: Dominique TipperAvasarala: Shohreh Aghdashloo

There are other characters that have been announced, like the important role of Fred Johnson who heads the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) and will be played by Chad Coleman (Tyreese from The Walking Dead). There are intense politics between the inner planets (Mars, Earth and the Moon) and the Outer Planets (usually known as The Belters) with associated cultural dynamics between people who have grown accustomed to living in space or in limited gravity (Space stations, asteroids, or the Moon) and Earth, which has a huge population and resources but increasingly limited ability to enforce its will on what it perceives as its colonies. However, Mars is almost as (militarily) powerful as Earth and is trying to enforce its will on the rest of the solar system regardless of what Earth may want. The Belters believe they are different from anyone who lives "trapped in the gravity well of a planet" and should be treated as such, the OPA is a group that is trying to advocate for Belters, often using violent means to get their point across.

And then things get really weird when an alien probe (called a "protomolecule") arrives that apparently turns any form of life into zombies. I can't wait to see how SyFy adapts the series, hopefully it will become their "Game of Thrones in Space."

Today Is #SpiritDay Against Bullying

Hat/tip to Kenneth in the 212

Science Magazine Has Special Issue On HIV/AIDS This Week

The most prestigious scientific journal in the world has a special issue on HIV/AIDS this week, with a cover devoted to an article about transgender sex workers in Jakarta (pictured above). Next week, the 20th International AIDS Conference is being held in Melbourne, Australia.

Hopefully the news on progress in the fights against AIDS/HIV will be good in the next few weeks!

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Tomas Berdych and Venus Williams Are Naked In ESPN Magazine

2010 Wimbledon finalists and perennial Top 5 player Tomas Berdych and 7-time major champion Venus Williams are gracing the "Body" issue of ESPN The Magazine, both being photographed au naturel (without clothes). This is the same magazine which featured a nude John Isner last year and Serna Williams was on the cover of the inaugural issue in 2009.

There are interesting interview with Venus and Tomas in the magazine. Check it out!

QUEER QUOTE: Milwaukee Paper Editorializes In Favor Of Marriage Equality

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel published an editorial today in favor of the state of Wisconsin dropping its appeal of the recent ruling by federal district court judge Barbara Crabb allowing marriage equality in the Badger State. This excerpt is today's Queer Quote:

Nearly a year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which barred the federal government from recognizing or providing federal benefits for same-sex couples married in states where such unions are legal. At the same time, it also declined in a California case to say whether state bans on gay marriage were constitutional or not. While not a clear victory for same-sex marriage advocates, the ruling did mean that California became the 13th state to permit same-sex marriage. 

Since those rulings, federal courts have struck down state bans in 11 states. Now, it's Wisconsin's turn: The decision that same-sex couples in Wisconsin — and all who believe in equality — were awaiting finally came Friday afternoon. U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that Wisconsin's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. 

This was not just a victory for gay couples; it was a victory for equal rights for all Americans, and it follows a pattern from the civil rights era, when federal courts played a key role in striking down laws that had imposed second-class citizenship on African-Americans. These bans had done the same to gay couples; it's good to see the bans meeting the same fate. 

[Wisconsin Attorney General] Van Hollen argues that Crabb's ruling should be stayed so as not to create confusion for the nearly 300 couples who have been issued marriage licenses in Milwaukee and Dane counties since Friday's ruling. Other counties are holding off on issuing such licenses, awaiting the state's appeal. And, in truth, Crabb could have been clearer in her ruling, which, unlike other courts' rulings, doesn't explicitly say what county clerks should be doing. Crabb is asking for more information before deciding whether to stay her own decision while it is appealed. There is a chance the ruling will be stayed even though Crabb did deny Van Hollen's request on Monday. 

But Van Hollen only has a point if he appeals Crabb's ruling. If he doesn't, the argument and the confusion are over. He should refrain from such an appeal and recognize that Crabb's ruling — like other such rulings across the country — is a victory for freedom for all Americans.

There is precedent here, of course. Republican Governor Tom Corbett decided not to appeal a similar ruling bringing marriage equality to Pennsylvania. Republican Governor Scott Walker could do the same thing in Wisconsin, but Walker has presidential ambitions, so such a progressive decision is unlikely to occur anytime soon.

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God

Jamaican Newspaper Editorializes In Favor Of Marriage Equality

Well, well, well! In a very surprising turn of events, the primary newspaper of Jamaica has published an editorial in favor of marriage equality and in opposition to the country's "buggery" law.

After discussing the fact that marriages in Jamaica have fallen by 21% and that nearly 80% of births on the island are out of wedlock and that a majority of children have no father's name on their birth certificate, the editorial continues:

HYPOCRISYWe draw attention to these statistics neither to ridicule nor undermine marriage, for this newspaper appreciates its potential as an institution of social stability and respect its centrality to Christian and other religious ideologies. But by taking the marriage to its contractual core, it bares the persistence of hypocritical and anachronistic attitudes that perpetuate discrimination. 

In Jamaica's case, we refer to Section 28 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, which defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman, thereby ruling out the possibility of formal recognition of same-sex relationships. It is a provision that has its foundation in a deep-seated, if slowly receding, homophobia that has caused us to maintain the buggery provisions, which, essentially, criminalise male homosexuality and allows the State the role of commissar of sexual preferences and to invade the privacy of people's bedrooms. It matters nought that the power is little used; its existence is chilling. 

INEQUALITYFurther, it is unassailable logic that Section 28 represents an assault on the principle of equality of people; people's right to forge relationships, especially when the exercise of those rights does not impinge on the rights of others; and their right to equal protection under the law. Indeed, a denial of these human rights is also an attack on the dignity of individuals who are prevented from the public expression of the powerful human emotion of love within the sanctity of marriage, although same-sex couples could well give the institution a shot in the arm. 

The religionists and churches who are not willing to embrace same-sex marriages, but who already co-exist in a morally plural society, need not fear that they may have to compromise their ideologies. While civil registers are not so precluded, ministers of religions who are marriage officers are exempt, at Section 8 of the Marriage Act, from performing weddings that are contrary to the rules of their denominations.

Good news!

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Time Magazine Has Laverne Cox On Cover "Transgender Tipping Point"

Time magazine has one of the stars of Nertflix's Orange is the New Black, Laverne Cox, a transgender actress, on the cover of this week's issue with the headline "The Transgender tipping Point"!

You bettah work!

Hat/tip to Joe Jervis

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Americans Exaggerate Their Church Attendance

The New York Times reported on a recent study which demonstrates a gap between how religious Americans say they are when surveyed by a person as opposed to how often they say they attend church when answering the same questions online.

A summary of the findings of the report are:

• On the telephone survey, 36 percent of Americans report attending religious services weekly or more, compared to 31 percent on the online survey.

• Compared to 30 percent of telephone respondents, 43 percent of online survey respondents say they attend religious services seldom or never.

• When interviewed by telephone, fewer than 3-in-10 (29 percent) white mainline Protestants report that they seldom or never attend religious services, compared to 45 percent of white mainline Protestants who took the self-administered online survey.

• Catholics are less than half as likely to report seldom or never attending religious services when responding on the telephone versus online (15 percent vs. 33 percent).

• Nine percent of white evangelical Protestants report they seldom or never attend religious services when speaking with an interviewer by phone, compared to 17 percent who report the same in a self-administered online survey.

• Only 14 percent of black Protestants report seldom or never attending on a telephone survey, compared to nearly one-quarter (24 percent) on the online survey.

• Surprisingly, the social desirability effects are strong among the religiously unaffiliated. While 73 percent say they seldom or never attend religious services in a telephone survey, that number jumps nearly 20 percentage points to 91 percent on an online survey.

• The study also found significant differences between younger and older Americans, as well as among different regions of the country, in the degree to which they inflate religious participation.

Interesting, eh?

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Jason Collins Named To TIME's 100 Most Influential People List

Openly gay NBA player Jason Collins was named to TIME magazine's "The 100 Most Influential People" list for 2014.

Superstar Beyonce Knowles-Carter is on the cover of the popular issue, and subsequent inside covers feature actor Robert Redford, Jason Collins, the NBA's first openly gay athlete, and General Motors CEO Mary Barra. Other honorees include actress Amy Adams, Amazon founder and The Washington Post’s newest owner Jeff Bezos, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Pope Francis, actress Christy Turlington Burns, potential presidential candidate and grandmother-to-be Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State John Kerry, Late Night host Seth Meyers, country singer Carrie Underwood, “Happy” singer Pharrell Williams, Russian President Vladimir Putin and singer Miley Cyrus.

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God

Game Of Thrones Makes Cover Of Vanity Fair!

With the fourth season of HBO's Game of Thrones now only two weeks away the marketing machine is revving into high gear. Thus there is a fascinating story in Vanity Fair, which includes amazing photographs by Annie Liebovitz and an important interview with George R.R. Martin where he discusses how the story being told in the television series and the one in the books may coincide.

The season that’s about to debut covers the second half of the third book. The third book [A Storm of Swords] was so long that it had to be split into two. But there are two more books beyond that, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. A Dance with Dragons is itself a book that’s as big as A Storm of Swords. So there’s potentially three more seasons there, between Feast and Dance, if they split into two the way they did [with Storms]. Now, Feast and Dance take place simultaneously. So you can’t do Feast and then Dance the way I did. You can combine them and do it chronologically. And it’s my hope that they’ll do it that way and then, long before they catch up with me, I’ll have published The Winds of Winter, which’ll give me another couple years. It might be tight on the last book, A Dream of Spring, as they juggernaut forward.

To me it would be very sad if the show caught up with the books. I seriously hope tha Mr. Martin squeezes out The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring sooner rather than later.